


Loveless: Act III

by iArgent



Series: Loveless: Act III [1]
Category: Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy XV, Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Aerith does. She's not even from his world, Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst, Ardyn is evil, Because being fifty in the end game is a BAD IDEA, Crossover because Aerith is a precious romantic baby with big dreams and a lot of power, Fix-It, Florist Angeal, Fluff, Genesis "two goddesses talk to me in my head and I'm unsure how to deal" Rhapsodos, Genesis planting Bannora Whites in Eos, Hero of the Dawn Genesis, Hijinks, Kingsglaive Genesis, Kingsglaive Vincent, Knowledge can't hurt you if you already know it, M/M, Massive ships because screw normal, Most people live, Multi, SOLDIER vs Daemons, Sane Sephiroth, Smut, Someone in the world besides his friends and Carbuncle needs to look out for Noct, Stressed out Cloud, The Fall of Insomnia still happens, The chocobros and Nyx collide with four and a half SOLDIERS and a Vamp Turk, They need a better group name, Who can still kick your ass, shocker - Freeform, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-07
Updated: 2017-09-28
Packaged: 2018-10-29 02:09:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,511
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10844304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iArgent/pseuds/iArgent
Summary: Mostly because Aertith is a romantic, partially because everybody else is dead, guilty, or generally messed up by it. They'd wanted to save Gaia. But in reality all that's left is pain. When given the chance, six heroes decide they will help a different world. On the stipulation they may never return home. It's a steep price. But nobody needs a repeat of Gaia.By the time they encounter Cor, Genesis has three hollow-points in his abdomen and approximately nobody knew about it.And by the time they were moving furniture, they almost didn't care that they only remembered what Aerith let them. There was a sense of freedom there, as Masamune and Rapier, and Buster and First Tsurugi were stowed for Kukris and standard swords, that whatever happened before, wouldn't now.Noctis grew up with the knowledge his second string guard were a little different. But as long as they kept treating him like this, he wasn't going to call them on it.





	1. Bargain

**Author's Note:**

> This might be a mistake. Oh god.
> 
> But Ima try.
> 
> Feel free to comment, I love hearing if you enjoy my work. Otherwise I;ll just be here, slowly updating. Alone. It's quite sad really.

He was nodding off against a stone. Enjoying the sun on his skin, Weiss laying useless a distance away.

 

He was back. Awake. His heart yet clenched in his chest, agonizing from the loss. Existence hurt. His sleep had been rarely troubled, for unlike true sleep there were few dreams. That didn’t mean upon waking he didn’t miss hearing Angeal attempting to be quiet. Or smelling Sephiroth’s soap. Or hearing the Puppy yapping.

 

It didn’t mean that he didn’t feel guilty when he woke. Even if he’d broken the news to Sephiroth as gently as his panicked mind allowed. It didn’t mean Angeal didn’t die thinking he was a monster. That Hojo had hurt their pup. And the blonde one. Cloud. His parents. Sephiroth. The people of Bannora.

 

The Hero of the Dawn he may be. But he’d been a monster first. Before that, and envious young man, but good. Then a monster. Now, impossibly, a hero. He slumped forward. All the power. All the years. And he was resting against a rock, by a corpse. Closing his eyes he could hear the Lifestream whisper. The girl. She’d been in his head as he rested. She told him things on occasion. 

 

Sephiroth apparently strode out of the Lifestream on occasion to wreak havoc on Gaia. She was upset at his rudeness. He wasn’t sure how to take that. Angeal and Zack were dead. And by the goddess didn’t that __hurt__.

 

The girl spoke a great deal about Cloud, who Genesis had met once. She referenced a Valentine, a name Genesis only knew from researching S cells.He was pretty sure the girl didn’t mean Grimoire Valentine, of whom Hollander had a few mentions of in his notes.

 

A muffled thud to his right drew him out of his thoughts. He almost touched Rapier, laying close to his side, the red blade shining softly in the light. But he stopped himself. It didn’t sound human.

 

He turned his head, still weak from flight, from too much sleep. And noticed a leather bound book.

 

Arm protesting he pawed it into his lap and blinked down at the embossed cover. Loveless. His favorite copy. Against all sense he looked up. As if some magical book rain was about to start. That would be terrible. The pages would get so bent.

 

“Did it surprise you that much?”

 

Had he the energy, he would have jolted at that familiar voice. Much too real, in the place vacated by his book.

 

“I thought you might like it back.”

 

Genesis blinked, letting his head loll toward the girl. She’d seen inside his head at its worst. He doubted being limp and weak as a kitten would bother her.

 

“My name is Aerith.”

 

“Genesis.” He murmured back.

 

Aerith leaned forward. Genesis noted the wind smelled sweeter. In general the area felt better.

 

A beat “Am I dying?”

 

“No!” Aerith sputtered. “I just, the wind follows me sometimes. I don’t come here a lot.”

 

He made a vaguely questioning noise.

 

“I’m the Cetra. The last one. But I died, years ago.”

 

“You’re awfully hale for a dead woman.” He slurred, the comfort of the area sapping the remaining strength from his limbs.

 

“Genesis. I need to ask you a question. A few. And you need to be __super honest__ , okay?”

 

“Couldn’t you find out anyway?”

 

Aerith huffed. “I can. And Minerva will. But it’ll all go easier if you just answer my questions, okay? If you're good I won't go in your head."

 

Genesis sighed, feeling some of his hair flutter. “If I’m not in slumber by then. It would be my pleasure.”

 

He felt Aerith bounce a bit, a light clapping. Odd. He hadn’t noticed closing his eyes. He was so tired. It was getting worse. But it didn’t hurt like degradation.

 

“If you could do it over again, would you do it differently?”

 

He was silent. Aerith leaned forward to move some auburn hair out of his face. It was wilder than she remembered. Perhaps he’d let her fix it. His eyelids twitched and he exhaled shakily. Not asleep then. Good. They had time.

 

“I don’t know what I could change. But I never wanted this end.”

 

Aerith twisted her mouth. “But if you knew this would happen, what would you do differently, to help your friends? And the people you don’t already know? You can’t lie about that, Minerva told me.”

“Die. I guess. Perish. Scatter like leaves in the wind.”

 

“You’d die?”

 

“You __asked__.”

 

“What if it could be like that again. What if I took all the pain away, and let everybody live again, only knowing what they needed?”

 

“What a question.” He laughed softly under his breath.

 

“If it would save a different world. Do you think you all could do it?”

 

He forced his eyes open for a moment, blinding himself with sunlight in sleep watered eyes and closed them quickly. “Save. A world, a whole world? Gaia?”

 

He heard her hair as she shook her head. “It wouldn’t be this world. You’d never see Gaia again. And…Sort of a world. Do you remember Geostigma?”

 

His eyes flickered again. “No. Tell me.”

 

“It was Jenova, and Sephiroth. Their cells infected others. When the cells were introduced, the immune system of a human overcompensated, they wasted away, it was fatal.”

 

“Why talk about it.”

 

“Well, I fixed most of it. But what if I said there was something a lot like that?”

 

“It sounds terrible at the least.”

 

More soft clapping. “Exactly, you catch on fast!”

 

“Degradation is a sore point I don’t wish on many.” He wasn’t sure he was intelligible. But Aerith seemed to understand him.

 

“I really like happy endings, Genesis, what about you? A really good one, a well done one.”

 

He thought briefly of Sephiroth trying a new food, the pleasure in his face at the discovery. Angeal’s constant nagging, and the obscene amount of plants he kept. He thought of Zack and how happy he must have been to become SOLDIER First Class. He pictured them alive, and happy. Not twisted. He pictured them as Hero’s, as he always had.

 

“Yeah. I like happy endings. They’re not real though. Just a plot device.”

 

Aerith sighed. “But what if you could __make__  one?”

 

“Hn?”

 

“What if, you could be a hero? Hero of the Dawn!”

 

“I think that’s my current title.” He slurred dryly.

 

“Okay. But, and hear me out. What if I, theoretically, knew a really sad story was going to take place. And the Gods themselves wanted it like that. Only, if I maybe poked it a bit, it could still be fixed, and it could be happy! The heroes could all see their new dawn. Wouldn’t that be nice!”

 

Genesis’s eyelids flickered again. He thought of the new seeds Angeal had planted before he left. Wondered if they ever grew. He thought of Sephiroth finally trying a Bannora White. He thought of them safe. Zack playing fetch or something. Happy.

 

“It sounds detailed for theory. But pleasant.”

 

“Do you think someone who sacrifices everything for their world deserves to have a happily ever after?”

 

He was silent.

 

“Genesis?”

 

“Did they truly sacrifice? Or was it a lie they told themselves?”

 

“One sacrifices everything, even if it hurts. Everybody they’ve ever loved dies horribly. But the world is saved, they never see it. Another tried to sacrifice, but he just made it all worse, he killed the sun, and the boy who sacrificed everything.”

 

“It’s a shame the boy never sees the sunrise.” He admitted.

 

“Some deaths can’t change. I’ll whisper them to you, if you agree. But others you have to save, okay?”

 

He shifted. Leather creaking, stiff from the dampness of the cave. “You’ve a plan? And how would I do this?”

 

Aerith was very quiet for a moment. “You can’t come back. Ever. I’ll send some things! Gifts, care packages. You’d remember me, but not this. It won’t have happened.”

 

“I can’t come back?”

 

A shifting noise as she moved and her dress swept the grass a little. “I want to take six heroes from Gaia. Three are currently dead. And I want to…fold? You, into another world, where you’ll be happy. As a reward.”

 

“Leaving everything I’ve ever known is a reward?”

 

Aerith jabbed him with her finger and all he could do was grunt a little.

 

 “I’ll bet you don’t even like to look around when you open your eyes.” She was audibly pouting. “I’ll bet you feel really guilty, and you want to protect this place but you can’t handle being near it.”

 

“...I thought I was supposed to be honest because you __weren’t__ going to do that?”

 

“You __pushed__ me.”

 

“Fine.”

 

“Would you do it? Fight for better people, and grow old in a world that doesn’t make you so sad?”

 

He hummed “Better people?”

 

“I want you to help good people! And they’ll love you. Like family, I’ll bet.”

 

He sighed. Taking a moment to think it over. “I’ll be old.”

 

“Nuh-uh! I’m going to make you younger.”

 

Genesis groaned “Happy endings, youth potions, saving the world. This sounds like a terrible novel, Cetra.”

 

He heard her growl in frustration. “I happen to like those novels! And besides, it’ll be real. Ever wanted to serve a real live King, Genesis?”

 

“No.”

 

“You know, you were really pliable up till now.”

 

He took a breath. The air was still uncommonly sweet. He still felt more comfortable than he had in years. “If you make me younger, won’t I just degrade again?”

 

“No. I’ve talked it over with some others. We can change some things in a big way. But we aren’t allowed to meddle with people living here too much. You’d leave.”

 

“My friend, the fates are cruel. And guilt never fades.”

 

Aerith poked him again. “I want to take it away. And a lot of memories.”

 

“My apologies, __what__?”

 

Aerith huffed, more to give herself time to think than true irritation. “I want to take away all the bad memories and feelings, or, most of them, and place knowledge about yourself so it can’t be used to…make you crazy? It that the way I’m putting this?”

 

“Are you talking about Sephiroth?”

 

“...Yes? Frankly he’s a hazard. So if we fix him up he can’t damage Gaia anymore.”

 

Genesis shifted once more “We…We wouldn’t remember any of it? This pain we’ve caused people?”

 

“Not even each other.”

 

“Is that fair?”

 

“Not in the slightest, but you’re our best bet. And I believe in second, third and fourth chances!”

 

Genesis forced his eyes open. The burning secondary to the comfort. A brunette woman with a pink bow in her hair looked down at him. “Are you insane?”

 

She smiled sweetly. “Mostly. That’s why I’m not changing your enhancements. Well, that and Mako, everywhere, it would be a problem. I’m not sure how it works outside of SOLDIER bodies. So It’ll have to work itself out.”

 

“We’ll know everything else we need?”

 

“I’ll even add things! You’ll be happy if you try. I promise! Well. I don’t promise. I promise if you work for it it’ll work.”

 

He closed his eyes once more. Letting out a deep breath. “Would the others be happy?”

 

“Zack and Angeal are sad, but happy about it. Sephiroth is pretty much unresponsive this time. Cloud isn’t happy, but he wants to help. And Vincent feels a bit out of time anyway. Also I promised I’d check in and help!”

 

Genesis chuckled. “Where are we going?”

 

“Eos.”

 

“I guess it’s home then. Not like I’ll know any different.”

 

When he felt the heat fade he opened his eyes again, the burning gone, the offensive light gone. He was less comfortable. But he still knew it was real.

 

“That’s the spirit!” a womans voice giggled.

 

And he knew no more.


	2. Struck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Awakened, and asleep, all at once.

Everything sounded incredibly far away.

 

_Wake up._

__

Yet, he heard it all. It sounded as if he was underwater. He could breathe though.

 

_Wake up._

__

Oh. Tubing. He had a mask on. That’s how he was breathing. Why was he underwater?

 

_You need to wake up._

__

His eyelashes moved with a current. But his lips were uncomfortably dry, as was his nose. Definitely a face mask.

 

_Listen to me when I’m talking to you! Wake up!_

__

His eyes flew open, then slammed closed again. ‘Saline based maybe?’ It’s not like he would know. He’d never woken up in a tank before. He wasn’t aware that Heidigger…would…ever…Heidigger? Yes. He knew him, a scientist…He was the scientist in charge of he and Angeal. He’d….failed, and he had degraded. It hurt. He met Minerva after fighting with….Who? And she fixed him. Then he’d….gone to sleep? And met Aerith. Why had he gone underground? He slowly opened his eyes again and tried to let them focus through the water….solution…whatever.

 

He couldn’t see much. Or the room was very grey. He heard the airy reflection of his own breath as he huffed as if it was a thousand miles away. As it was, he couldn’t see a latch. How did he get someones attention to get out?

 

_Don’t call. You’re in danger._

 

He was suspended in a tank hearing voices. Okay, workable. ‘Aerith?’

 

_‘Someone there intercepted you. I’m sorry, he might know more about you than you’ The voice was apologetic. ‘You were only supposed to be asleep a little bit but he got his creepy little hands on your minds-’_

 

‘Someone…knows our past? All of it?’ He felt a brief flash of envy. He’d been awake for ten minutes and he was frustrated with the blurry nature of his life.

 

_‘You agreed, don’t be like that. Now. Break the glass.’_

 

It…wasn’t like he had other options. He flexed his arm to move closer and panicked. He certainly didn’t have such short bony arms? He kicked a leg. He…felt smaller. ‘Aerith?’

 

__‘_ Yes, you’re smaller. I didn’t want you aging too fast in this timeline. It’s alright, you’ll be back to normal in a few years.’ _

 

‘You want a scrawny little thing to break experiment grade glass?’

 

_‘You still have your Mako enhancements!'_

 

‘You shrunk me. Put me in another timeline, and let me get captured but I still have my Mako enhancements!?’

 

_‘It doesn’t react well to…anything. Your body was workable, but unless you wanted a few more arms I didn’t touch the Mako, it’ll need to fade out on its own! Now break the glass!’_

 

Wrenching himself forward he hit the glass. Bouncing off harmlessly. ‘This is a big tank.’ He pressed against the glass again feeling no give, before reaching up to his ears. They hadn’t removed his earrings, which was nice, though he was positive he looked ridiculous in this smaller body with them. But.

 

He tapped at an earring and felt the familiar sting of the materia the gem was crafted from. This would either work or boil him alive. It wasn’t exactly a firaga, but he’d take the the fira he got from the mage earring he’d stylized. The glass gave way and, as he hadn’t planned for it, he fell hard into steaming water and broken glass.

 

He ripped the mask off, staggering to his feet. A few harsh breaths of non purified air grated on his raw throat and made him dizzy. SOLDIER enhancemens still in effect he set to pullung glass out of anywhere he could see.

 

_‘Genesis, the others.’_

 

Staggering yet, and shaking his head. Uncomfortable in nothing but a pair of now utterly drenched hospital issue boxers. Whoever the ‘creep’ who had watched his mind was, he’d also taken some significant liberties. The growl in his throat caught on how dry said throat was.

 

He saw the others. He knew Cloud, Vincent, Zack, Angeal and Sephiroth on sight. Of course he did. But…He didn’t quite remember meeting Vincent or Cloud. Yet a wash of unneeded information washed through him at the sight of them. Cloud was smaller than them, he’d grown up in Nibelheim. He had a mother. He had…Mako poisoning? He was an…Infantryman? Shrugging off the wash of confusing data Genesis took in his surroundings.

 

Grey. Very grey. And no oversight. Which was fantastic because piloting a new body when he’d fallen asleep a fully grown man and woke up a teenager did nothing for his grace. His reach and stride were both much diminished from what he’d grown to expect.

 

He managed to pick his way over the glass to tap on another tank. Angeal didn’t respond.

 

The noise of his own escape must have been heard somewhere. He had to find his clothing, Rapier. He paused. He wouldn’t be able to use either of those things. Rapier was crafted for someone taller and broader than the body he was in. Sure he wasn’t a giant of a man fully grown but a growth spurt at seventeen had changed him from a tiny gawky thing to someone more….visibly appealing. He was clearly under seventeen now, if he was this small.

 

He approached a monitor by Angeals tank hesitantly. Hacking wasn’t his strong suit. However upon waking the monitor it simply gave him the option to drain.

 

“This is either a high level office, or a trap.” He mumbled to himself tapping the option, before moving on to do the same with the other tanks. “Feeling like trap, is what’s happening.” He grumbled, emptying the tank for Sephiroth.

 

_‘Get your things and go to Insomnia.’_

__

“I wasn’t planning on a cat nap, thanks.”

 

_‘It’s a city you insufferable-!’_

__

Genesis explored the lab as Aerith chattered crossly somewhere in his headspace.

 

Standard issue SOLDIER uniforms were stashed in a locker he’d popped the hinges off. A quick glance was all he needed to discern which set when to whom. He decided to forsake the wet hospital boxers.

 

Dressed now in something almost familiar he turned back to the others. All as disoriented as he had been. However their more peaceful awakening meant they were more groggy.

 

“Clothes.” He snapped, “Now, I’d rather not live in this lab.”

 

Angeal puffed a but as he always had when Genesis became waspish or bossy. But acquiesced easily, looking around at his surroundings.

 

Sephiroth and Vincent both seemed uneasy at the sight of a lab. The puppy and the…Cadet, were simply throwing clothes on and looking around.

 

The sooner he could leave this place and stop being their ringleader the better. Genesis was never too happy about leading directly.

 

“Anybody…Have a weapon?” Cloud asked as they all stood in silence, pondering their next move.

 

Genesis crossed his arms “I found no weapons in my search.”

 

“Where would I have a weapon, Spike?” Zack burst out when the blonde looked at him. “Pretty sure even the best of hiding places would have been flushed out by the water!”

 

Sephiroth grimaced

 

“Excellent visual, Zack.” Angeal sighed.

 

Vincent flexed the claw “I…Can use this.”

 

“That’s great!”

 

“Tell your puppy to stop yapping Angeal.”

 

“Heyyyyy.”

 

As it happened, they needn’t have worried. Even Angeal was biting his lower lip when the large door opened to snow and wind.

 

“Genesis?” Angeal murmured “You have materia, don’t you?”

 

Genesis tapped an earring, “Just a little. I’m not going to beat a blizzard.”

 

**_‘Go straight. You’ll need to go North, then across a sea, then south, to reach Insomnia’s capitol.’_ **

 

Genesis froze. “Aerith?”

 

Speaking aloud gained him a few odd looks.

 

_**‘Minerva. Move.’** _

 

“She says to go straight. Then cross a sea, and go south, to Insomnia.”

 

“Vague.”

 

For once, he agreed with Zack.

 

“Who’s speaking to you Genesis?” Sephiroth asked bluntly. Looking as worried as Sephiroth ever looked. Almost cute now, with shorter hair and a more manageable height. They all looked like gawky teenagers, barring Angeal who had definitely grown like a weed a full year before his older friend.

 

The red mage shuffled, the biting wind creeping inside to nip at him. “The Goddess. Aerith, and the Goddess.”

 

He could see suspicion. But Sephiroth was one of his closest friends. And he accepted the explanation. Though it was clear he and Angeal were the only ones who did. Vincent, however, didn’t seem to care one way or the other, and while Cloud and Zack exchanged nervous looks, he simply nodded.

 

A mechanical whirring snapped them out of their reverie and they bolted headlong into the storm, unarmed, mostly unarmoured, the sound of automated gunfire echoing for miles.

 

Genesis felt little but searing pain. His shoulder, his stomach, his leg. But the Enhancements kept him upright, and the snow fell too hard for any of the blood to show well. Every step made him want to scream. But they were all tired. He reasoned the wounds would heal over well before anybody noticed he was hurt. So he kept silent and marched on.

 

They began a long, frozen trek that night. Reaching a small cave in an outcropping as the sun rose.

 

Genesis took watch, and did not sleep.


End file.
